Muslim backlash silences all-girl band

By Aijaz Hussain -
Associated Press -
Tuesday, February 5, 2013

SRINAGAR, India — The first all-girl rock band in Indian-controlled Kashmir has decided to disband after only one concert because of threats its teenage members received on social media and a demand from a top Muslim cleric that they stop performing.

The fate of Pragaash, which means “first light” in Kashmiri, highlights the simmering tension between modernity and tradition in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where an armed uprising against Indian rule and a relentless crackdown by government forces have killed more than 68,000 people since 1989. Separatists criticized the band for what it said was “Western-style cultural waywardness.”

Adnan Mattoo, the rock group’s music teacher and manager, said the three high school students who formed Pragaash — drummer Farah Deeba, bass guitarist Aneeqa Khalid and singer and guitarist Noma Nazir — won’t talk about their decision to disband and what led to it.

“They feel terribly scared and want an immediate end to this controversy once and for all,” Mr. Mattoo said Tuesday. “First, the girls had decided to quit live performance due to an online hate campaign and concentrate on making an album. But after an edict by the government’s own cleric, these girls are saying goodbye to music.”

However, a girl identified as one of the band members told India’s CNN-IBN channel later Tuesday in a telephone interview that the group decided to disband because of the top cleric’s edict, and not because of the online abuse. The girl was not identified by name.

The girl told the station that they respected the cleric’s decision because he was “more aware of our religion,” and she pleaded with the media to stop reporting on the case.

“Everything was going fine till the fatwa was issued,” she said.

Pragaash performed in public for the first time in December in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. It won third place in an annual “Battle of the Bands” rock show organized by an Indian paramilitary force as part of a campaign to win hearts and minds in the region.

Soon after the show, Kashmiri pages on social networking sites like Facebook hotly debated the band. Some questioned whether the performance was appropriate in the Muslim-dominated society in Kashmir, and others raised broader questions on the Islamic approach to music and role of women in the society.

Many who commented backed the girls, but others were abusive, calling them “sluts” and “prostitutes” and calling for them and their families to be expelled from the region.

The controversy deepened Saturday after Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, promised a police probe into the threats and wrote on Twitter that “the talented teenagers should not let themselves be silenced by a handful of morons.”

The girls then became a political tool for all sides in the conflict.

Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, Kashmir’s state-sponsored cleric, issued a fatwa Sunday ordering the girls to “stop from these activities and not to get influenced by the support of political leadership.”

Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, criticized Mr. Abdullah for selectively supporting freedom of expression and said the band’s concert was “a step toward diverting young girls toward Westernization.”

However, the alliance distanced itself from the cleric’s edict and denied the girls were under threat. “Indian media is blowing up a small issue with a purpose to defame the Kashmiri freedom struggle,” the alliance said.